A University of Birmingham expert on how sport is instrumentalised for non-sporting aims, including high-profile sports events like the Olympic Games and football World Cup, will address a major conference in Berlin.

The University of Birmingham (UoB) and Jiangsu Industry Technology Research Institute (JITRI) today signed a new ¥20,000,000 agreement to develop innovative research in key areas such as nanoparticle technology and biomedicine. Signing the agreement allows both partners to work together on applied research projects that will use the University's research expertise to strengthen technological innovation in the Jiangsu Province across a wide range of engineering and medical technology.

A child washed up on the shores of Turkey after drowning at sea; the images of youngsters climbing across fences of barbed wires on Lampedusa; a boy sitting dazed and bloodied in the back of an ambulance after surviving an airstrike in Syria – these are some of the images that, once seen, can never be unseen. The moments, captured in these images pass, but the cycles of displacement continue.

A child washed up on the shores of Turkey after drowning at sea; the images of youngsters climbing across fences of barbed wires on Lampedusa; a boy sitting dazed and bloodied in the back of an ambulance after surviving an airstrike in Syria – these are some of the images that, once seen, can never be unseen. The moments, captured in these images pass, but the cycles of displacement continue.